A Christmas Story
by Prospero's Pal
Summary: It's Christmas time and Dash receives a wonderful present.


Maybe it was because Dash X had finally learned to trust someone, or maybe it was because he realized that Marshall was a decent guy who only wanted to be his friend. Most probably it was a little of both. Those two things plus the fact it was 14 degrees Fahrenheit motivated Dash to accept the Teller's invitation to stay with them over the holidays. The broken down shack he was currently calling home had zero insulation and the only source of heat was a tiny, leaky kerosene heater Dash had found in a dumpster.

Mars led his friend up the stairs of the family home and into his room. "Make yourself at home." Dash looked around and was impressed. He knew the Tellers weren't rich by any means but Marshall's room seemed luxurious to him. After living in a series of abandoned shacks, back alleys, tents and wooded lots, the simple comforts of an average boy's bedroom blew his mind. Mars had his own TV, some sort of electronic game console, stacks of comic books, posters of science fiction monsters and sports teams, a stereo, digital clock, a large and very comfy looking bed, and much more. Dash dropped his duffel bag on the floor and wandered around the room, looking at all the gadgets and gizmos. He picked up a walkie-talkie.

"Let me guess, this connects to the other half of your junior G-Man detective club?" Dash was referring to Simon. Mars laughed and told him, yes his red-headed friend had the other one and they used it when they were conducting their investigations into the weirdness that was Eerie, Indiana.

"Dude, take off your coat, get comfy." Mars demonstrated by taking off his over-sized green army jacket and tossing it on the floor. He sat on his bed, took off his sneakers and threw them on top of the jacket. At 13, Marshall Teller was not exactly neat and tidy. If it weren't for his mom cleaning up after him, the discarded clothes, food wrappers, dirty dishes and god knows what else would be a couple of feet high. Dash wandered to the side of the room opposite the window and peered inside an open door. "No way, Teller. You have your own freakin' bathroom? Sweet!"

Marshall shrugged as Dash flipped on the bathroom light and looked around. "Yeah, we all have our own bathrooms." Dash was again impressed and muttered a single word while shaking his head from side to side. "Sweeeeeeeeet."

Dash wandered back inside the bedroom and finally felt enough at ease to take off his enormous black coat. He asked where he could hang it up and Marshall told him to just toss it anywhere. The grey haired boy smiled at his friend's slovenly ways but carefully hung his coat on the back of Marshall's desk chair.

Mars playfully poked him in the back."So what do you want to do? Dinner's not for another hour." He was hoping his weird friend would want to play a game on the Atari. Simon was the only one he ever played with and he wasn't much competition. For all of his intelligence, the red-headed boy was terrible at video games. He had absolutely zero eye-hand coordination.

Dash stared longingly at the open bathroom door. "Um. Um, would it be ok if I took a shower?" Marshall at first thought that was odd until he remembered that Dash lived in a shack with no running water. God only knows how long it had been since he had had a nice hot shower, and to be honest, Dash kind of smelled. He could stand a little washing up. "Of course!" Marshall smiled and told Dash to follow him into the bathroom. "Let me show you how it works." His dad, ever the inventor, had installed his own custom made faucets throughout the house. While Marshall was going on about pulling this doo-hickey out while turning this knob that way, Dash noticed the size of the bathtub. It was enormous.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, do this, don't do that. I get it. Um, would it be alright if I took a bath instead? Your tub looks really inviting. "Sure." Marshall laughed at how polite Dash was acting. "Dude, I keep telling you, make yourself at home. You can do anything you want."

Dash kicked the toilet seat down and sat. He started taking off his boots while Marshall continued to prattle on about being careful with the faucet controls. The younger boy started filling the tub with warm water. He looked around and was startled to see Dash standing next to him completely naked. Apparently Dash X did not suffer from an over abundance of modesty.

"What, do the Tellers take baths with their clothes on?" Dash laughed at Marshall's shocked expression.

"No, of course not. I was just surprised at um, at um." Marshall tried not to stare but his eyes were glued to a certain part of his friend's anatomy. "I was just surprised at how fast you got out of your clothes."

"Yeah, right. You were surprised at one, the fact I don't have any body hair and two, the fact that my um, male appendage, is on the, shall we say, large side?" Dash was right on both counts. "Listen, I don't shave my pubes or anything weird like that, I just don't have any hair down there, or anywhere for that matter except my head." To illustrate, Dash lifted his right arm and pointed to his hairless armpit. "I guess whatever happened that turned my hair grey and put these weird marks on my hands prevents me from growing body hair. I mean I'm old enough to at least have some peach fuzz right? It's for the best really, I'd hate to look down there and see a bunch of grey hair!" Marshall laughed and agreed that would indeed be weird.

"So can I get in now or do you want to continue staring at my sausage?" Dash laughed and Marshall blushed bright red. To say Dash's penis was on the large side was an understatement. It wasn't overly thick but it was very long, reaching half way down his thigh. Marshall had never seen one that long before. The boys in gym class all had much smaller ones.

Dash smirked and started to climb into the tub. The grey haired boy sat down and closed his eyes, letting the warm water wash over his body. After a few seconds he opened them and playfully splashed his friend. "Dude, doesn't the water get any hotter? Not to complain but this is kind of lukewarm at best."

Marshall adjusted the water temperature. "Look, see this slidey thing up here? That makes it hotter but be careful, it gets really hot, really, really fast!"

"Mars, just make it hotter, don't bore me with the details." The water in the tub got dramatically warmer and Dash closed his eyes again and hummed some song he had heard earlier in the day. Marshall had an idea.

"Keep your eyes shut, I've got a surprise for you." Marshall went to the cabinet underneath the sink and started rummaging around. He returned and sat on the rim of the tub. He poured a cap full of liquid from a brightly colored bottle into the water.

"Do I smell bubble gum?" Dash smiled and wondered what was going on but he kept his eyes closed like Marshall had asked.

"Yes, you do!" OK, open your eyes." Dash did so and was surprised to see the bathtub being filled with bubbles, an insane amount of bubbles.

"A bubble bath? Seriously?" Dash was secretly delighted but felt he had to act like he was insulted. "Mars, I'm not 5 years old, you know!"

Marshall reached down, grabbed a handful of bubbles and playfully smashed them on top of Dash's head. In response Dash scooped up a double handful of suds and slapped them around Marshall's face, making a bubble beard. Both boys were laughing and having a great time playing, splashing each other and tossing bubbles everywhere. Marshall's clothes were getting soaked.

"Mars, just get in the tub, there's plenty of room." Dash splashed more water and suds on his friend.

"No thanks! My clothes are wet enough already."

Dash was amazed at how thick Marshall could be at times. "I meant take off your clothes and get in the tub!"

Marshall again looked shocked. "You mean actually take a bath together?"

"Duh. Yeah. What's the big deal? Afraid to let another boy see your Marshall parts? Or are you just a big old chicken?" Dash made clucking sounds and let out a huge laugh. Marshall took the bait.

"I'll show you who's chicken!" Marshall Teller stripped naked in front of his friend and climbed into the tub with him. The two boys spent the next hour laughing together, splashing, covering each other in bubbles and generally having a hell of a good time. There was a loud knock on the bedroom door. Neither boy had bothered to close the door to the bathroom and if anyone walked into Marshall's bedroom they could easily see them taking a bubble bath together. Marshall was terrified.

"Boys? Is it all right if I come in?" It was Marshall's mom. The younger boy was paralyzed with fear and didn't say or do anything in response. Dash however, always quick thinking, jumped out of the tub and ran to the bedroom door trailing water and bubbles behind him. He quickly and silently flipped the latch on the door, locking it. "Oh hi, Mrs. T! Don't come in right now, I'm changing my clothes." Dash hoped that would be enough to get rid of her.

"Oh, sorry sweetie, I just wanted to tell you boys dinner will be ready in 15 minutes, I hope you like spaghetti and meatballs!" In fact Dash _loved_ spaghetti and meatballs and correctly guessed Marshall had relayed that information to his mother.

"Yum! I do indeed! We'll be down in a few minutes." Dash caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror over Marshall's dresser and laughed. He was stark naked, dripping wet and wearing a hat made of soap bubbles Marshall had carefully crafted for him. He listened at the door and heard Mrs. Teller walking away.

Dash returned to the bathroom and was surprised that Marshall was still sitting in the tub. He had the classic deer in the headlights look. "Mars, she's gone, situation saved thanks to yours truly." He bowed theatrically. The boys rinsed off, dried themselves and got dressed. Marshall noticed how smelly Dash's clothes were and insisted he put on some of his. He got him a clean sweatshirt, a pair of briefs, grey sweatpants and a pair of thick white cotton socks.

Dinner was amazing. Marilyn Teller was a gourmet-level cook and had whipped up the best spaghetti and meatballs Dash had ever even dreamed of, much less actually tasted. Dessert was a 6 layer chocolate cake filled with hazelnut frosting and topped with home made whipped cream. To go with it they had hot chocolate, made of course with the best Dutch cocoa and loaded with sugar. Dash wondered aloud why the Tellers didn't all weigh 600 pounds with food like this at every meal. Marshall's sister Syndi laughed and told him they only eat like this on special occasions and usually they had frozen dinners, pizza, or even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner. She wondered why her little brother and his cute friend both had wet hair but kept her speculations to herself.

After dinner Dash insisted on helping Mrs. Teller and Syndi clear the table and clean up the kitchen. Marshall and his dad retired to the family room and sat like bloated ticks on the sofa, too full of food to do anything constructive. Once the dishes were done the girls and Dash joined the others. The family voted on which Christmas movie to watch and decided on "It's A Wonderful Life." Afterwards, there was another round of hot chocolate served with Marilyn's decadent Christmas cookies, loaded with enough sugar, fat and calories to sustain a small village for days.

The boys returned upstairs, played every Atari game Marshall owned and generally just enjoyed each other's company. By 11:00 both of them were exhausted and could barely keep their eyes open. Before going to bed however, Dash asked if it was OK to open the curtains, he wanted to see if it was snowing. He loved watching the snow, it reminded him of something from a long, long time ago but he could never quite remember what. Marshall obliged and opened the curtains then switched off the bedroom light.

Dash stood in front of the window and watched the snow quietly fall, backlit by a solitary street light. Marshall flipped on his radio. The station was playing Silent Night. The whole scene was beautiful and Dash found himself overcome with emotions. He softly started singing. "Silent night, holy night." That's as far as he got before getting too choked up to continue. Marshall was shocked when he realized the great and powerful Dash X was crying. The amazingly self-sufficient, afraid of nothing, cocky, smart-mouthed boy that never let his guard down and never, ever let his emotions show was leaning against the window frame, watching the snow and sobbing his heart out. Marshall hugged him.

After a bit, Dash sniffed and managed to sputter out a few words. "Mars, I love it here, please don't make me go back, I don't want to be alone anymore, please don't make me go away." Mars patted him on the back and hugged him tight, tears streaming down his cheeks. "No one is ever going to make you leave, Dash. My parents want to adopt you, they were going to tell you tomorrow. You're home now. You've found your way home at last." Marshall silently said a prayer of thanks that Dash was going to stay and the two of them would become brothers. The next day was Christmas and Dash X. Teller would spend it in the warm and loving embrace of his new family.


End file.
